Absolute respect

Heroes Remember

Absolute respect

Well I had to, I had to rely on myself. I had nobody else to rely on. So in the case of being in charge of a group of men, I had to rely on how I felt. And also I had to show the people that I'm in charge of, that I had some respect for them. Not just some I should say, all of my respect for them. Interviewer: Absolute respect. Absolute respect. Thank you for the term. But that's the way I felt and I think that the people themselves felt the same way towards me. As I say, if Rick is going to go over there well that's a safe place to be because nothing ever happens to him. And when it does happen, I still survive. I had an 88 shell land 6 feet from me. Yes, that's why there's nothing there, eh. I landed in the ditch over here in four feet of water. Three people up ahead of me were injured, two killed, two behind me killed. Why, I don't know. Why I didn't succumb under the under that blast. Experts said, well you were too close to the force, to the initial force of the explosion. And I was thrown out of the way, could be, because I tingled all down one side for weeks after and I couldn't hear a word out of that ear. Now there were things like that. Now I walked away from that and there's a lot of people including my officer, said to me, says "you got a rabbit's foot in your pocket?" I said, "No, I ain't got no rabbit's foot, I've got this." And I, I revere that.

Mr. Parker continues to talk about his good fortune and his great sense of faith.

Richard Allen Parker

Richard Allen Parker was born in Vernon, BC on May 27, 1917 to a First Nations family. He talks about his early years, the prejudice that he faced, and the meaning of being First Nations. He left home at an early age to work in the mines. He talks about joining the PPCLI in 1942, fighting the SS and Hitler Youth and his time in Algiers and Italy.